Archive: Opinions

The column from Matthew P. Binkewicz, asserting corporate America's historic respect for the "common good" and its respect for "individuals as people", ignores history.

William Whyte wrote "The Organization Man" in 1956, in response to corporate America's demand for conformity and subservience.  He, among many others, described and quantified corporate worship of group superiority over the individual.

Corporations are responsible to their shareholders.  They are responsible to the country only so far as they follow its laws and regulations.  That's why Theodore Roosevelt and his successor, William Howard Taft, signed numerous pieces of "trust busting" legislation in the late 19th century and early twentieth.  It's why Franklin Roosevelt, in the Second New Deal (1935-1938) supported labor unions in an effort to balance corporate excess.  During World War II, then Senator Harry Truman headed a committee that found "...waste, inefficiency, mismanagement and profiteering..." in wartime business practices, which in some cases he referred to as "treason".

The relationship between a country's corporations and its citizens is defined by the laws (and the enforcement of the laws) governing business.  Government is, or should be, the people's representative, which is why the corruption of government is a far more serious issue than corporate responsibility.

If Mr. Binkewicz seeks corporate responsibility, he should address his demand to his elected representatives and hold them accountable for it.


From: David Dubin
Lansing, NY 14882

----
v5i10